Mumbai: Two children, aged nine years and six months, drowned on Friday morning after a 72-inch water pipeline close to their shanty in the Behrampada slums burst, causing a flood. Police said both children were sleeping when the pipeline burst, and are believed to have died in their sleep.
According to civic officials, the part of the Tansa Main pipeline that runs through Behrampada in Bandra (East) burst around 10.30 a.m. on Friday and water spurted as high as ten feet, flooding 50 to 60 shanties.
“The hutment immediately next to the pipeline was occupied by the Doifode family. The children’s father, Santosh, was some distance away from the shanty, while his wife and two children had gone out. The other two, Priyanka, 9, and six-month-old Swapnil, were sleeping inside when the pipeline burst,” said an officer with the Nirmal Nagar police.
Residents rushed out, snatching whatever belongings they could before the water flooded their hutments. Meanwhile, Santosh, realising that Priyanka and Swapnil were missing, sought help from his neighbours, and a search for the children began.
Around half-an-hour later, Swapnil was seen floating in the water and was rushed to the Bhabha Hospital in Bandra, where he was declared dead before admission. Meanwhile, residents spotted Priyanka in the water and rushed her to V.N. Desai Hospital in Santacruz, where she, too, was declared dead before admission.
Supply to the pipeline was cut off around four hours after the burst, and water started receding from the slum around an hour later. Late on Friday, a team of civic officials conducted temporary repairs on the pipeline, and detailed repairs are still on. Water supply will be affected in Bandra, Khar and Santacruz due to the incident, officials said.
The police said the children's mother and grandmother went into shock after learning about the deaths. Santosh is an electrician by profession and is the family’s sole earning member.
Accidental Death Reports (ADR) have been registered at Nirmal Nagar police station in connection with the deaths. Police said the BMC had recently demolished some illegal slums near the pipeline, but new hutments had sprung up in the same area over the last six months.
“We are trying to find out the reason behind the pipeline burst. We have immediately stopped the water supply and pipeline repair and maintenance work is on...It seems that the decades-old pipeline could not bear the excessive pressure of water, which led to the incident,” a BMC official said.
Officials from H East ward said notices had been issued to the slum dwellers but were not heeded. "We will be constructing a 10-metre-high wall on either side of major pipelines in the city to prevent similar incidents in the future,” a BMC officer said.
In 2009, the Bombay High Court had directed the BMC to remove slums located along the main water pipelines in the city and demarcate a ten-metre buffer zone. — With PTI inputs
